In 1986, the University of Illinois initiated the Consortium for Educational Change to facilitate discussions about local reform initiatives among districts and university faculty. A high school dean of students' assessment of his district's CEC Partnership Council disclosed communication and trust problems and unanimous support for goals and…

Curriculum standards can help educators achieve important student outcomes. However, only through collaboration, empowerment, and leadership will meaningful school improvement occur. This paper examines the importance of (1) collaborative action research to help teachers assess and improve their own practice and (2) leadership support to encourage…

Summarizes a complex study of a science-teacher-education program whose goal was to graduate teachers who held conceptual change conceptions of teaching science and were disposed to put hem into practice. Concludes that there are influences on prospective teachers from their content coursework that have significant implications for how they view…

Describes the development of the practices and perspectives of one elementary school teacher as she engaged in teacher-as-researcher methodology in both urban and suburban settings. Documents how the teacher-as-researcher began to explore science inquiry in an elementary setting and how students, parents, and educators became co-learners,…

Holistic educational research looks beyond test scores as a measure of student development and considers broader perspectives, such as quality of life and community interactions. Approaches to making research more understandable, accessible, and practical at a grassroots level include qualitative research, informal research, participatory research…

Examined the experiences of preservice teacher participants in Project TEAM, an initiative at a predominantly white university to increase the number of minority students who completed teacher education and became teachers. Case study data highlight three themes: developing a sense of community with minority student peers, developing a stronger…

Describes a school-university collaboration which tackled issues of mentoring, writing, and publication, bringing teachers, professors, and administrators together for research. Participants' action research resulted in a major book publication on new directions for mentoring and creating cultures of synergy. Strategies for developing and…

Examines how many teacher education programs are using authentic assessments of teaching (cases, exhibitions, portfolios, and action research) to support teacher learning for today's diverse schools. Using specific teacher education programs as examples, the article discusses how and why these strategies support teacher learning and more valid…

Examines how teacher educators introduced and modeled a language of possibility in an inquiry group to help prospective teachers acquire a secondary teacher discourse. Illustrates how the discourse supported the interns in finding ways to control their own professional learning and act on their emerging philosophies in the midst of powerful…

Describes action research conducted in a Partnership in Scotland designed to help local people improve their living conditions through economic, environmental, social, and educational efforts. Action research and the use of Quality Circles resulted in the identification of educational problem areas and a plan for educational improvement. (SLD)

Profiles a course that engages preservice teachers in action research focused on drawing, for learners from early childhood to adolescence. Discusses a number of activities incorporated into the class including literature reviews, reflective journals, research questions and activities, and instructional strategies. (MJP)

Stresses the need for outcome data on speech/language intervention in the schools and identifies obstacles and advantages to collecting outcome data in the school setting. Problems and solutions particular to the educational setting in the conduct of outcome studies are described. (DB)

Describes a project that trained institutional policymakers in action research regarding problems in developing training policies about young people's needs, examining attempts to collaborate and dialog with stakeholders and discussing how project members became enmeshed in complex sets of relationships calling for construction of dialog in…

Presents a first-person account of three people closely involved in a collaboration between one junior-senior high school and Miami University's Institute for Educational Renewal. The collaboration centered on incorporating a teacher-as-inquirer component into student teaching experience, which developers believe holds greater promise for…

Language teachers in the Ukrainian community undertook a complex literacy initiative to investigate and improve Ukrainian-English bilingualism/biliteracy in Western Canada and throughout the diaspora. Documents project activities over several years, presents findings of student/teacher needs assessments, shares the approach to reading and reveals…